REVIEWS: Lady Gaga: The acid trip I didn’t know I wanted… but glad I had.

As a person who doesn't know much about Lady Gaga other than her music and how she wore the wonderfully crazy costumes, I honestly didn’t know what to expect when I entered the Stadium on Tuesday night. The show started late, but that didn’t deter the audience and fan’s and I wondered why. What was it about Lady Gaga that lead 19,000 people to come. Was it the music, the show its self, what she stood for, or the costumes?

I was eager to see what she wore, but as the show started.. she was just wearing a sparkly cowboy hat and the basic costume to match and singing Diamond Heart and A-Yo. Where were the crazy costumes? The music and lyrics were done well. However I found that the music was off somewhere because I had ringing in my ears that I normally never get. So far, this concert wasn’t drawing me in like I had expected. But, for those who wait patiently to see what happens.. it was worth the wait.

What appeared to be just a regular concert suddenly began to change. Colour’s began to flash, flames and sparks flew, the stage tilted right and left like a boat on high seas. The three domes on the roof, reminded me of purple jellyfish with ripples as if in water and purple lights swinging around as if they were tentacles suddenly split in half and descended to the two platforms below. I thought great, more screens.. but I was so wrong.

Yes they were screens for a while, and some of those videos, used as turnaround points for Lady Gaga to change into the next costume, were disturbing. I think they reflected certain fears we all might have at times. One struck me as claustrophobic. Others showed light verses dark and claws, and one random one about a car, red fog and driving in circles. I still don’t get that one.

The screens reached the 2 platforms in the centre of the stadium and split again to become bridges between the stage and the platforms. What was seen as part of the sound booth at the far side of the stadium, rose up, the black cloth tore away to reveal a neon lit platform with a crystal piano.

As the night continued, she had multiple costume changes, singing songs like Pokerface, Alejandro, Love Game, and so many other fan favourites. She covered nineteen songs!

She talked about equality with Come to Mama, and even held a fan’s rainbow flag up, along with another fan’s miniature doll of her, of which she kissed and gave back to the delighted fan. She made connections to her audience with stories of her own life. How things changed. How she grew. We could relate.

I was seeing what they saw. This wonderful woman, who took her uniqueness and, a bit of a trippy sense of humour, and combined it with singing that brought joy, sorrow, remembrance, defiance, anger, and love to each person in that stadium. She is the only artist I have ever seen step outside the stage box and traverse the entire venue in which she was given to express herself. As she sang, all the fans around me sung with her, hearts connected. When she told the story of Joanne and dedicated the song to her father, the audience melted.

When the show came to a close, the ride nearly complete, she gave a Million Reasons for why she was there and crowd cheered. She descended into the platform, upon that crystal piano, leaving her hat upon the stool, with a single solitary light upon it.

When I started this little concert review, I never understood what fan’s saw, now I do and I’m glad.

Sarah Diamond is a local artist here in Vancouver who loves taking photos. Interested in the field since she was 7, she has loved the challenges that Photography brings with each shot and environment she interacts with.